Reservation in Employment, Education and Legislature — Status and Emerging Issues

This Working paper studies the reservation policy of the Government of India with regard to – employment in government services, admission in educational institutions, and representation in legislative bodies – as envisaged in the Constitution of India. This Working Paper systematically reviews the government’s policies and administrative mechanisms for regulating, monitoring and implementing the reservation policy. It also addresses issues of private sector reservation. The Paper brings out that in the last fifty years, the share of SCs/STs in the government services has improved in all the categories of jobs. However, the SCs/STs are heavily concentrated in Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ categories of jobs. The representation in educational institutions has also enabled improved access to the SC/ST students to desired courses. Representation in legislative bodies has also provided space to the SC/ST persons.